Armageddon
by Stepping Stone
Summary: Minato displays a power that causes Fuuka to contemplate the situation in which the S.E.E.S. team finds themselves. Rated T to be on the safe side. Some might detect mild angst, despite my best efforts to avoid it as much as possible. Spoilers abound.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own the rights to Persona 3 FES or any other Shin Megami Tensei game. That honor belongs to Atlus, and I look forward to what they do with the series in the future. This is just how I kill my time until I can enjoy more of their fine work.

Armageddon

By Stepping Stone

The first time Minato did it, they were all stunned. They had all seen him use his persona in combinations before, it just his ability all the more special. But this was unlike anything he had done before. The shadows were poised to strike, when Minato used his evoker. A shot rang out as a horned angel and what looked like a demon with skeletal tails appeared briefly behind their leader before a glowing orb formed in front of his chest. Minato hunched forward, seeming to wrap himself around it. When he straightened, the light seemed to explode outward, enveloping the shadows. When it faded, all trace of the shadows was gone. For a moment they were all stunned, and probably would have been for longer if Minato hadn't collapsed, exhaustion evident on his face. They quickly grouped around him, ready to fight off any threat. Minato asked Fuuka for an Escape Route and it took the still shocked support member of the team a moment to comply.

After that day it was hard for Fuuka to look at her leader the same way. They had all seen what Minato had done, but the others had very different reactions. Junpei had thought it was "really badass," Mitsuru appreciated how efficiently he had dispatched the shadows but thought he shouldn't do it again if the end result was his incapacitation, and Akihiko saw it as Minato's training finally paying off. Ken had muttered something about Phoenix Ranger Featherman R before blushing and hurrying up to his room. Yukari didn't say much, but her concern for the sluggish Minato was obvious.

Only Koromaru and Aigis seemed as unnerved as she was. Fuuka figured it was because they were the only ones who had the senses to understand just how much power he had released. Koromaru didn't often pass up an opportunity to take a walk to the Naganaki shrine to run around, but he avoided going with the blue-haired boy for a week before Aigis stepped in to convince him to stop avoiding their leader. Fuuka of course couldn't understand Koromaru's explanation but from what she heard Aigis say, it had to do with his instincts. Aigis had confided to her that what frightened her was how drained Minato had been immediately after he used the attack he had called Armageddon. Apparently she could tell that his energy level and dropped drastically and was frightened that he might be dying, and while he no longer had Death sealed inside of him, keeping him alive was still a top priority to Aigis. Not to say that she didn't care for everyone else, they needed all the power they could muster for the battle with Nyx, but Aigis and Minato had always had a special connection, which had become more apparent ever since she returned from her repairs after the confrontation with Ryoji on the Moonlight Bridge.

Fuuka wished she could explain why Minato's display frightened her the way it did, but between studying for exams and going to Tartarus she didn't have the time to figure it out. It didn't help that since the first time, Minato had used Armageddon again. He had gone to his spot on the first floor of the tower and seemed to sink into himself. They had all seen him do this before, so none of them thought anything of it. It wasn't until the group was surprised by a group of shadows. The shadows got a few shots in before they could retaliate. Minato summoned the two personas again, and the shadows disappeared in a flash of light just like the first time. The only difference was that he didn't collapse this time. The group wanted to leave, but Minato convinced them that he was doing well enough to continue. When they met the next group of shadows, he did it again, but this time he did collapse.

The scolding he got from Mitsuru when they got back to the dorm sounded bad enough to cow any of them but Minato seemed unconcerned, saying he just needed to work something out and then it wouldn't be a problem. Nobody was sure exactly what he was talking about until the next trip to Tartarus, when he did it again, and again, and again. After every battle he would take a deep breath before moving on like nothing had happened. This astounded his friends, who were still concerned that he was going to drop any second. In order to calm them down, Minato explained, though it was didn't make much sense, how he had figured out a way to make it so he could use Armageddon as many times as he liked by "fusing" personas. As long as the battle ended quickly, and he could do it twice in one battle if he had to, but that would be it. The other member of S.E.E.S. were amazed, it confirmed that there was still a lot they didn't know about how personas worked. Minato seemed to have a better hold on it than the others but then again, he was the only known wielder of multiple personas, so it made sense he would know things that others wouldn't about them. However, they all agreed that while it was clearly a very effective method of exterminating shadows, Minato should not use it except in case of an emergency. Everyone needed to be ready for Nyx, and one person doing all the fighting wouldn't let everyone adequately prepare.

It was after they returned to the dorm that night and she was in bed that Fuuka finally put together why Minato's display of power scared her. Juno allowed her access to all sorts of information during battle, like elemental weaknesses and what attacks enemies could use. It also quantified the amount of damage it would take to defeat an enemy and how much damage an attack did. She had seen how powerful Armageddon was, it was enough to kill any one of them ten times over, even Minato who seemed to have hit a wall in his growth. Even if they all became as strong as their leader, that attack could still destroy them all. But that wasn't what really bothered her. No, what scared Fuuka was the possibility that even that power wouldn't be enough to save them. Ryoji had insisted that Nyx was unstoppable. What if Nyx possessed a similar attack, would the battle be over in an instant? She had decided to fight, the same as all the other members of S.E.E.S., but witnessing what might be only a fraction of the power they would be facing all too soon had shaken her more than she had thought possible.

What kept her going was remembering what was at stake if they gave up. She couldn't bear to think of what would happen to Natsuki, to her parents, to the world if they failed. She couldn't fight like the others, she wouldn't last a minute against the shadows, but they depended on her to make sure they could fight to the best of their ability, to make sure that they didn't get hurt by making a dumb mistake like using an attack the enemy would repel. It frustrated her sometimes that she could not do more, that she could not fight like the others did, and when she tried to help it sometimes backfired spectacularly, but she would do all that she could. As she drifted off to sleep, Fuuka realized that that was what she was afraid of, that she wasn't going to be enough. Minato had reminded her of just how insignificant she was in the grand scheme of things, but it had also strengthened her resolve. Even if she was insignificant, there is a big difference between insignificance and meaninglessness. She had abilities unlike anybody else on the team, she could be of use. Her life would only be meaningless if she didn't at least try to fight off the end of the world that Nyx promised to bring, and she refused to make a mockery of the sacrifices they had all made. Others might give unto despair in less dire circumstances; that was why Nyx was coming in the first place. She could not allow herself to be one of them. Fuuka knew that for her to be at peace with herself, she had no other option but to be strong, even in the face of Armageddon.

**Author's Note:** This is just a little something I came up with while playing P3 FES. Any and all criticism is welcomed, in fact it is expected. I used Fuuka as the focus because I can see how being a support member in a battle against an unstoppable force might be make somebody doubt themselves. I don't think this is particularly good, I am even committing what I consider a cardinal sin of story writing by doing more telling than showing but I also don't think I'm a particularly skilled writer, so I'll let this be my start. Maybe I'll do something else if inspiration strikes.

On the off chance that somebody comes across this and actually reads this far into this author's note and likes this idea, I would love to see a better done version of this. I've always thought my imagination far exceeded my talent for turning ideas into something real, let alone something of quality.


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